Recommended Reading - Halo 5: Guardians

[BaconShelf]

In this week's canon fodder, we were presented a handy little image from SDCC with a list of media that will be tying into Halo 5, in some form or another.

 

 

In this list, I thought I'd go into a bit more detail as to what it says and provide a brief summary of each. From here on out is spoiler territory, you have been warned.

 

Halo: New Blood

New Blood is set from the perspective of Buck in the postwar period, and a written account of his actions, all the way from joining the UNSC, several battles in the War (including a meeting with the as-of-then ODST Palmer) and the fates of his squad, Alpha-Nine, after the battle of Earth. Namely, Buck, Mickey and Romeo are inducted into the SPARTAN-IV program, with Mickey turning traitor, Rookie is KIA in fighting with insurrectionists and Dutch retires on Mars with his wife.

 

Halo: Escalation

Set mainly from the post-Spartan Ops period, Escalation has been instrumental in setting up the galaxy in te aftermath of Requeim's destruction. It also gives us our first meeting with Blue Team since Glasslands where they reunite with John to fight the Didact on Installation 03 (Issues 8, 9 and 10) as well as introduce Holly Tanaka in the ongoing story arc.

 

Fall of Reach

FOR is the adaptation of the novel, The Fall of Reach. It details the selection process for SII, the training they had to endure and of course, the battle of Reach itself. It is the best characterisation we have had of Blue Team ever, and sets up the characters quite nicely.

 

Master Chief Collection

Pretty obvious really, John's story since the battle of Installation 04 and the account of Buck's part in the Battle of Earth.

 

Hunters in the Dark

Newly released, HITD is the first appearance of Vale as a Sangheili linguistics expert, and a mediator in an expedition to the Ark in 2555, alongside some new Spartans and the return of Halo 3 Co-Op characters Usze and N'tho.

 

Nightfall

The first appearance of Locke in 2556. We get to see what happened to some remains of Installation 04, and some greater expansion on the Lekgolo species.

 

Hunt The Truth

An amazing introduction to the stakes of Halo 5, as well as a clear insight into how ONI is viewed by the civilian populace an how much civilians know. Alongside return of characters from other media like Ben, Petra, Andrew Del Rio, Franklin Mendez, Michael Sullivan and Ellie from Second Sunrise, First Strike/ Escalation, Halo 4/ Kilo-5/ Initiation, Fall of Reach/ Ghosts of Onyx, Forward Unto Dawn and Starry Night, respectively.

 

Last Light

As of now, unreleased. But follows the actions of Blue Team and team Katana following Glasslands and will likely give some more insight into what they have been up to since John's dissapearance.

 

Altogether, this is 343i's recommended reading list, and all of it will likely tie heavily into Halo 5. In addition, I would recommend reading First Strike, Ghosts of Onyx, Glasslands and the Forerunner Saga for some more insight into some characters and events and such likely to be in Halo 5.